His intuition was luminous from the instant you met him. So was his intelligence. A lot of actors act intelligent, but Philip was the real thing: a shining, artistic polymath with an intelligence that came at you like a pair of headlights and enveloped you from the moment he grabbed your hand, put a huge arm round your neck and shoved a cheek against yours; or if the mood took him, hugged you to him like a big, pudgy schoolboy, then stood and beamed at you while he took stock of the effect. (About Philip Seymour Hoffman)
acting actor inspirational intelligence philipseymourhoffman talent

About This Quote

About John le Carre

John le Carre was a 20th-century British novelist and former spy. David John Moore Cornwell, better known by his pen name John le Carré, was an Irish-British author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. A "sophisticated, morally ambiguous writer", he is considered one of the greatest novelists of the postwar era. Read more on Wikipedia →

Themes

  • Inspirational — Uplifting words to motivate and inspire positive action

More quotes by John le Carré

“I worked for MI6 in the Sixties, during the great witch-hunts, when the shared paranoia of the Cold War gripped the services.”
— John le Carre
Great Sixties Paranoia

“I think, increasingly, despite what we are being told is an ever more open world of communication, there is a terrible alienation in the ordinary man between what he is being told and what he secre...”
— John le Carre
Man World Think

“I don't know the literary world; I was scared of being confronted with famous names, not knowing what they had written. It was occupied territory I was entering.”
— John le Carre
World Not Knowing Know

“If you're growing up in a chaotic world without reason, your instinct is to become a performer and control the circumstances around you. You lead from weakness into strength; you have an undefended...”
— John le Carre
World Growing Up Control

“SIS, the Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, also has no executive powers and operates abroad on CIA lines, but with a tiny percentage of the budget and a tiny percentage of the personnel.”
— John le Carre
Service Budget Secret

“The Secret Intelligence Service I knew occupied dusky suites of little rooms opposite St James's Park Tube station in London.”
— John le Carre
Service London Park
View all quotes by John le Carré →

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